Happy New Year! Hisham Muhammad has announced the release of GoboLinux 014, an independent distribution whose main claim to fame is a radically redesigned file system layout: "We are pleased to introduce GoboLinux 014, the new major release of GoboLinux, the Linux distribution with an alternative directory structure. This release is the result of over a year of work. The live CD build environment is highly customizable and packages were built using a dynamically-generated sand-boxed environment which insulates the source code and its dependencies during compilation. Major upgrades include KDE 3.5.8, glibc 2.5 and X.Org 7.2, as well as new versions of the GoboLinux management tools." Read the release announcement and release notes for further information. Download: GoboLinux-014-i686.iso (667MB, MD5).

GoboLinux is a modular Linux distribution - it organizes the programs in a new, logical way. Instead of having parts of a program thrown at /usr/bin, other parts at /etc and yet more parts thrown at /usr/share/something/or/another, each program gets its own directory tree, keeping them all neatly separated and allowing the user to see everything that's installed in the system and which files belong to which programs in a simple and obvious way.

Lucas Villa Real has announced the availability of the beta release of GoboLinux 016, an independent distribution with a custom file system hierarchy. As was also the case with the earlier alpha release, GoboLinux provides a minimalist desktop based on the Awesome window manager. From the release announcement: "I'm happy to announce the release of the second preview of GoboLinux 016 for x86-64. Thanks to your feedback, we have made this snapshot more smooth and robust. Major changes since 016 alpha: kernel - new version with support for generic x86-64 processors; Runner - many improvements and new features for /System/Index virtualization; GoboHide - major rewrite and bug fixes, now using generic netlink sockets; installer, kernel - included preliminary support for MacBooks; live CD - improved support for booting off from USB. Fixes performed based on user feedback: Gimp - package fix; Firefox - pages are now rendered as expected (/dev/shm fix); Python, compile: missing Python files are back...." Download: GoboLinux-016-beta-x86_64.iso (932MB, MD5, torrent, pkglist).

Lucas Villa Real has announced the availability of the first alpha release of GoboLinux 016. GoboLinux is an unusual distribution as it comes with a highly customised (and perhaps more logical) file system hierarchy which differs substantially from the traditional UNIX layout. This new release is the project's first made for the x86_64 architecture and it features a minimalist desktop based on the Awesome window manager. "We are happy to announce the first preview of GoboLinux 016, the distro's first 64-bit release since its creation back in 2002. Some of the highlights include: Runner, our filesystem virtualization tool that dynamically changes the processes' view of /System/Index based on the program's Dependencies file - with that tool, one does not need to worry about which version of a given dependency is currently linked (or activated) on /System/Index; a minimalistic desktop based on the Awesome window manager; a focus on the exploration of novel ideas. You may find this snapshot less packed with packages, but it should be more fun to run!" Here is the full release announcement as published on the gobolinux-users mailing list. Download: GoboLinux-016-alpha.iso (1,442MB, MD5, torrent, pkglist).

Lucas Villa Real has announced the release of GoboLinux 015, a distribution with a custom file system hierarchy that differs considerably from the traditional UNIX layout. This is the project's first stable release since March 2008. From the release announcement: "It is with pleasure that I announce the release of GoboLinux 015 - the alternative Linux distribution. After a hiatus of 6 years, we have returned with an updated set of packages and some infrastructure changes that have come for the better. Some of the major points of this release are: migration from the /System/Links hierarchy to /System/Index; embracing 'root as super user name - that should make recipes more simple to write and soften the task of preparing new releases; live USB support off the shelf; adoption of Enlightenment as the desktop environment for the first time." The live image is available for download from here: GoboLinux-015-i686.iso (1,486MB, MD5, torrent).

Lucas C. Villa Real has announced that the third beta of GoboLinux 015, a distribution with a highly customised file system hierarchy, has been released. The biggest news is that Enlightenment has replaced KDE as the preferred desktop user interface. From the release announcement: "I am pleased to announce the release of GoboLinux 015 beta3. We have had several updates on this snapshot that include changes to the desktop environment (we have opted to ship the ISO with Enlightenment 18) and to the file system hierarchy (removal of /System/Links). Starting with this snapshot, we will no longer have support for a configurable superuser name. Borrowing Hisham's words: it was an interesting experiment, often fun, often annoying, often tiring. We stretched the boundaries of what's hardcoded and what's not in a Linux system, but as of 2014 it just takes too much effort to swim against the stream on that, for little to no practical gain. This snapshot also introduces a number of new packages that should enrich the desktop experience." Download link: GoboLinux-015_beta3-i686.iso (1,266MB, MD5).

Lucas C. Villa Real has announced the availability of the second beta release of GoboLinux 015, an unusual distribution which attempts to redefine the entire UNIX file system hierarchy by placing applications into their own separate directories: "I am pleased to announce the second beta snapshot of GoboLinux 015 for the i686 architecture. Thanks to your feedback and to numerous hours shaping it, this release is more mature and smooth. The list of high-level changes since the first beta follows: introduction of /System/Index hierarchy; GRUB 2 works and can be installed on a disk or partition; SYSLINUX update fixes the live CD boot on a number of machines; deprecation of GoboLinux BootScripts' network settings in favor of NetworkManager; improved versions of Compile and Scripts tools; various updates to Installer in both text and graphics modes." Here is the brief release announcement. Download from here: GoboLinux-015_beta2-i686.iso (1,389MB, MD5).

Lucas C. Villa Real has announced that the beta release of GoboLinux 015 is now ready for testing. GoboLinux is a distribution that attempts to redefine the entire file system hierarchy by placing applications into their own directories. From the release announcement: "It is with pleasure that I announce the availability of GoboLinux 015 beta for i686. We have had a lot of good feedback from users and therefore the ISO image should be more stable and pleasant to use than it was in alpha. Besides the usual fixes I would like to emphasize the following improvements over the first snapshot: installer works both in text and graphics (X11) mode; installer translations for es_MX; D-Bus, Polkit, udev and UDisks have been integrated fairly well with KDE 4; upgrade to Linux kernel 3.13.3 for improved SquashFS performance on the live DVD; adoption of EXTLINUX as bootloader (we already use SYSLINUX to boot the ISO image; support for live USB (booting from a USB memory device)." Several known issues are also mentioned in the announcement. Download link: GoboLinux-015_beta-i686.iso (1,312MB, MD5).

Good news for the fans of alternative (non-UNIX-like) file system layouts - GoboLinux is alive! Lucas Villa Real announced earlier today the availability of the first alpha build of GoboLinux 015 - the project's first release in nearly six years: "I am happy to announce the release of an alpha snapshot of GoboLinux 015 for the i686 architecture. This is the first version that had its preparation fully automated from scratch, which means that following the bug reports collected from you all, an ISO image for x86_64 will be also produced for a round of tests. This automation was possible thanks to the new GoboALFS project, which lies on the shoulders of jhalfs from Linux From Scratch. There are a few known issues with this snapshot which I would like to let you know beforehand: the Installer (especially its Qt0based GUI) has not been tested yet; KDE warnings related to MIME types; udisksd and upowerd are not automatically started by dbus...." Read the release announcement for more information. Download: GoboLinux-015_alpha-i686.iso (1,302MB, MD5).

Carlo Calica has announced the availability of a minor point release of GoboLinux, version 014.01: "We are very happy to introduce GoboLinux 014.01, the new release of GoboLinux, the Linux distribution with an alternative file system structure. This release is our first 'point release', providing a stability update for our latest major version, GoboLinux 014, which was released three months ago. Overview: the CD serves both as an installation disc and a live CD, with a complete graphical desktop featuring KDE 3.5.8, OpenOffice.org 2.3.1 and a host of applications; features an installer that works on both text and graphical mode; features a udev-based hardware detection system." Read the rest of the release notes for a detailed list of features and changes. Download: GoboLinux-014.01-i686.iso (671MB, MD5).

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